- who decides what is defined as culture?
- how does popular culture affect us and the way we think?
- culture = very difficult to define
- dialectal material = base & superstructure
- base - labour relations, economical background, material concrete of a society
- everything else about society emerges from the base - laws, politics, the way we think about the world etc is all a direct result of the base
- all forms of culture, consciousness, art etc are directly influenced and controlled by the base
- the way in which our culture can be seen to be a direct product of our society
- capitalism
- dialectic form
- base produces and conditions superstructure
- not only is culture a product of capitalism but culture reinforces capitalism
- money holding up the whole system at the base - holding up the Bourgeoisie
- superstructure (systems of law, ideology, state, politics) comes from the support of the base
- when talking about popular culture, people generally tend to make value judgements, as if popular culture isn't as 'good' as culture (or is inferior)
- popular culture as culture made by the populous - made by the masses
- with Friedrich's piece the viewer is supposed to contemplate the sublime
- culture vs mass produced popular culture
- inserting works that wouldn't appear in art galleries into art galleries
- questioning why these works aren't classed as 'culture'
- taking popular culture work (by the urban youth) - stealing it and putting it into a gallery so it then becomes 'art'
- distinct reflection of social class on culture and popular culture
- analysing the popular culture and class divides in the mid 1900s in Manchester
- mass factory work, clear distinction between the workers and the bosses (poor vs rich)
- because of this separation, an autonomous culture of the working class emerged
- before this, only the rich aristocracy made and produced 'cultural' works such as paintings and poetry and there was an illusion that culture was a 'shared' entity
- a culture made by the working class for the working class, and for profit, emerged
- entrepreneurs selling work appeared and made independent livings off it
- there was a tendency in working class culture to talk about life in the working class
- Arnold's attempt to define culture as the 'most important things in the world' and the 'ultimate achievements of mankind'
- 'anything with an agenda isn't culture'
- tried to argue that the new mass culture was a 'disease' and that if the world reverted to liking purely the culture that the working class appreciated (high culture) then the world would be a better place
- elitist position
- Arnold and the dialectic position = maintaining the status quo
- Leavis - follows Arnold's writings
- sees that gradually throughout the 20th century the world has been on a slow decline in terms of culture
- culture has become more standardised and insignificant
- 'people who really know about culture have the right to set the standards for others to follow'
- arguing for a reactionary stance where the elitist return to a 'ruling' position within culture
- writing from a position of anxiety
- thinks the world should revert back to where the poor followed the elite
- opposite position on popular culture
- new forms of popular culture emerging when they were writing
- popular culture, in their view, maintains social order
- doesn't present a challenge or a threat to the elite, upper class, but instead strengthens and maintains the elite and capitalism
- one of the tools which capitalism employs to perpetuate itself
- they argue that all forms of culture are produced in exactly the same
- everything in popular culture is all just the same
- feeding people an endless stream of monotonous, mass culture
- reduces peoples capacity for independent and critical thought
- a way of behaving that supports the current system
- why do people not resist it?
- popular culture creates a false consciousness
- products of popular culture indoctrinate and manipulate
- culture affirms and conceals new conditions of social life
- serves to depoliticise the masses
- culture industry
- chain of consumption without any thought
- glues the system together and perpetuates it
- the masses being fed things the other people like and that we are being told to like for them to make money
- causes a form of obedience to accept instruction
- reflects docility of the world
- Benjamin argues that you can create meaning at the point of reception and consumption
- we're all equally responsible for creating and affirming culture
- theories of how people form their own identities in response to popular culture
